Who is Clayton Kershaw’s wife? All about Ellen Kershaw

Clayton Kershaw’s long-standing romance with his wife Ellen Kershaw (née Melson) is as sweet as it gets.

The two, who are from the same Texas town, met in elementary school and began dating as teenagers. Ellen and Clayton married in 2010 and have four children. Their first child, Kari Ann Kershaw, was born in 2015, followed by Charlie Clayton Kershaw in 2016. Ellen gave birth to Cooper Ellis Kershaw and Chance James Kershaw in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

In June 2025, Clayton confirmed that she is currently pregnant with her fifth child, a girl.

In a November 2022 Instagram post celebrating Ellen’s birthday, Clayton praised his wife’s ability to “handle chaos with ease” and said she “makes my life more enjoyable.”

“We love you and we hope you have the best day to celebrate,” the pitcher added. “It’s not a bad idea to grow old together!”

According to the website of Kershaw’s Challenge, a charity run by the couple, Ellen has supported her husband’s career since he was drafted by MLB in 2006, right after he graduated from high school. Clayton made his debut as a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers in May 2008.

So, who is Clayton Kershaw’s wife? Here’s everything you need to know about Ellen Kershaw’s relationship with the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher.

Ellen is from Texas

According to the Kershaw’s Challenge website, Ellen, like her husband, is also from Dallas.

In an April 2023 interview with D Magazine, Clayton said Ellen’s childhood home was the place where all her friends would gather, and that her parents, Leslie and Jim Melson, always invited people over for dinner.

“If you go to dinner, there’ll probably be 15 people,” the 11-time All-Star said. “I don’t even know if they knew who they were. That’s pretty cool.”

they met in elementary school

Clayton and Ellen’s love story began when they were children, and they became friends in elementary school, he told D Magazine. The 2024 World Series champion formally asked Ellen, a freshman at Highland Park High School, to be his girlfriend between classes.

After high school, Ellen attended Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Creighton had also committed to college, but decided against it after receiving a $2.3 million offer from the Dodgers in 2006.

She told Risen that they needed to repair their relationship while she attended college and he played in the minor leagues.

“I think we both realized that it was definitely worth the effort, and towards the end of our college careers, we both realized that our lives were much better together than when we were apart,” he said, adding, “We could accomplish so much more.”

Clayton echoed that sentiment, telling the media that by distancing himself he realized she was the person.

“I think we got closer when she went to college and I started playing professionally,” he said. “We both figured things out on our own, and I think that really helped our relationship today.”

Clayton and Ellen married in 2010

According to D Magazine, the couple wed on December 4, 2010 at Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas. A “Welcome to Dodgertown” sign was displayed during the reception, and Clayton reportedly danced while wearing Dodger blue sneakers, according to Reporter-News.

Two years after their wedding, Clayton wrote about the life he wanted to build with Ellen in his 2012 book, Arise: Live Out Your Faith and Dreams on Whatever Field You Find Yourself.

The 2014 National League MVP wrote, “Although we come from different backgrounds, we agree on several things that we would like to incorporate into our new family.” “Sunday night dinner is always important, and our house features a revolving door of people coming and going.”

He continued, “Dogs should be treated like humans, and card games should be taken very seriously. We play pranks and watch The Office before bed. Our final activity of the day is to pray together.”

Ellen joked to D Magazine that although she doesn’t have a dog because her children have allergies and doesn’t play many card games because she’s too competitive, Clayton’s imagined future is “pretty close” to their current reality.

They have four children and are expecting a fifth

Ellen and Clayton welcomed their daughter, Kari Ann, on January 23, 2015. Nearly two years later, the Dodgers announced on Facebook that the Kershaw family is expanding their family once again with the birth of Charlie on November 18, 2016.

Cooper arrived on January 12, 2020, and almost two years later, on December 2, 2021, Clayton shared on Instagram that Ellen gave birth to their fourth child, Chance.

In June 2025, Clayton announced that Ellen was pregnant again and said Father’s Day was special because the couple had just announced the gender of their second child. 5. “Another girl came and I had the bookend girls come with three boys,” he said.

Although Clayton’s career is based in Los Angeles, the couple has roots in their hometown of Dallas. They bought a house there in the early 2010s and split their time between Texas and Los Angeles during baseball season.

The couple told D Magazine that no matter how demanding Clayton’s schedule is, they have a family rule of seeing each other every seven days. In an August 2017 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Ellen described her role as a baseball wife as the family’s accountant, traveling secretary, and real estate agent.

“I feel like I just kind of got into it,” she said. “When you start adding kids to it, it’s a whole different ballgame.”

they started doing charity work together

In 2011, Clayton and Ellen co-founded Kershaw’s Challenge, a nonprofit serving vulnerable and at-risk youth in Los Angeles, Dallas, Zambia, and the Dominican Republic. Over the past 10 years, the organization has raised more than $20 million for charities that support underprivileged children.

“I always say, when I get a gift like being able to throw a baseball, I haven’t done anything to deserve it,” Clayton told D Magazine. “It’s just a gift that was given to me. So what do I do with it? I think that’s why God gave me Ellen, and I think that’s why she had a vision about Africa. I think it was all intertwined.”